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Fire/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Tim and Moby are out camping. Tim has made a circle of rocks and piled short tree branches within the circle for a campfire. TIM: Oops. We forgot to pick up kindling. MOBY: Beep. A door opens in the side of Moby's head. He pushes a section of tree branch into the hole. There is a buzz-saw sound. The wood comes out of Moby's opposite hand as kindling, which Moby drops on the campfire site. TIM: That was a little bit of overkill, but thanks. Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, what is fire made of? Fire molecules? From, Yerkes. Fire isn't made of molecules. It's not matter, like that piece of wood or those rocks. An animation of Tim and Moby's campfire site shows a piece of wood and the rocks that circle the pile of wood lighting up as Tim mentions them. TIM: Fire is a form of visible energy, like sunlight. MOBY: Beep. An animation shows a large, burning fire. TIM: Well, the energy is thrown off by combustion. That's a chemical reaction between oxygen and a source of fuel. In the background the large fire burns. Images represent a molecule of oxygen and a black cube. Text on the cube reads: fuel. A plus sign appears between the oxygen molecule and the cube to indicate that they can combine to form fire. MOBY: Beep. Moby holds up a can of gasoline. TIM: Well, yeah, that'll do the trick. But a fuel source can be anything that burns, like oil, wood, cloth, or even marshmallows. An image shows a cube of fuel. Other images show a drop of oil, a log, a hand towel, and a branch with marshmallows on it. TIM: And the oxygen comes from the air all around us. MOBY: Beep. Moby imagines reading a book. Suddenly, the book catches fire. Moby looks anxious. TIM: No. Lucky for us, oxygen doesn't combine with fuel on its own. Moby looks relieved. TIM: The reaction needs a third ingredient to get going: heat. An animation shows a cube of fuel, a molecule of oxygen, and heat waves. TIM: If enough heat is added, some of the fuel will vaporize and turn into a gas. When this gas combines with oxygen, you've got a flame. The animation shows the cube of fuel turning into a gas as the heat and oxygen make contact with it. Then part of the cube bursts into flame, as Tim describes. TIM: All three ingredients are needed to start a fire: Fuel, oxygen, and heat. An animation shows a triangle. Its three angles are labeled as fuel, oxygen, and heat. Inside the triangle, a flame takes shape and burns. TIM: Let's see it in action with this match. Tim holds up a wooden kitchen match. TIM: Match tips are coated with a substance that needs just a little heat to ignite. An image shows a wooden match with a blue tip. An arrow points to the substance Tim describes. TIM: Uh, don't do this on your own. Seriously. Tim holds a kitchen match near its matchbox's striking surface. TIM: Unless you've got a firefighting robot by your side. MOBY: Beep. Moby wears a firefighter's helmet and holds a fire hose. TIM: You're right. I shouldn't even be doing this. I'm going to get my dad to help. Tim walks off to find his dad. A ticking clock shows that time is passing. Tim's dad joins Tim and Moby. He touches the match to one end of the matchbox's striking surface. TIM: Rubbing the match against the striking surface creates friction. An arrow indicates the direction the match will be scraped against the striking surface. Text on the arrow reads: friction. TIM: That generates enough heat to combust the stuff on the match tip. An animation shows the match being struck against the striking surface. The match tip bursts into flame. TIM: The burning chemicals throw off even more heat, which sets off combustion in the matchstick's wood. The match burns as Tim describes. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Like most fuels, wood is made mostly of carbon and hydrogen. An image shows a large log of wood. Additional images represent a carbon atom and a hydrogen atom. Text reads: carbon, C, plus hydrogen, H. TIM: During combustion, oxygen combines with those elements to form new compounds. An animation of an oxygen atom joins the images of the carbon and hydrogen atoms. Text reads: carbon, C, plus hydrogen, H, plus oxygen, O. TIM: That's called oxidation. It results in gases like carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and water vapor. Images and labels appear representing the gas molecules Tim describes. Carbon dioxide, or CO2, has two oxygen atoms and a carbon atom. Carbon monoxide, or CO, has one carbon atom and one oxygen atom. Water, or H2O, has two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. TIM: Stuff that isn't oxidized ends up as ash and smoke. An animation shows a burned-up campfire. It is a pile of ash with tendrils of smoke drifting upward from it. MOBY: Beep. TIM: That's a good question. We only have to apply heat once to start a fire. An animation shows the fire triangle, along with a wooden match. The tip of the match ignites. TIM: The energy it throws off heats up nearby fuel, causing it to combust. This chain reaction is why fire spreads on its own. It's kind of like the fourth ingredient for combustion. An animation represents small bits of fuel feeding a match's fire. The fire travels down the wooden stick of the match. TIM: If it's blocked or slowed down, the fire will go out. An animation shows the chain reaction being blocked. The fire stops as Tim describes. TIM: If it's accelerated, it can result in much more than just a fire. An extremely fast combustion reaction is also known as an explosion. An animation shows the fire diagram exploding into a large blaze. MOBY: Beep. Tim is holding Moby in his arms. Moby looks concerned. TIM: Yeah, that's an understatement. Fire is dangerous. But it's also the single most useful technology we have. It cooks our food and keeps our homes warm. And its energy powers cars, planes, trains; even rockets! Images and animations show a charcoal barbecue, a fireplace, a car, a plane, a train, and a rocket. TIM: Where'd my dad go? I was hoping he'd help us light this fire. MOBY: Beep. Moby's feet become rocket thrusters. He rises upward above the campfire site. Then he extends his arm and shoots a heat ray at the sticks and kindling. They ignite, and a campfire starts. TIM: Um. Again, a bit of overkill; but all right. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Science Transcripts